As the World Cup draws ever closer, I believe that it is vital that everyone in the Rugby League community pulls together to help the game maximise this rare opportunity to make a significant step-change increase in it's national profile.
Make no mistake, despite of how much we talk about 'the greatest game' and the 'quality of the product' , the game's national profile is very low.

I watched the Exiles game in a bar in Spain, and despite the pub being busy with a quiz and pool competition, I was the only one who watched the game.An elderly Chelsea supporter admitted that as a southerner he knew nothing about the game, and the landlady said she had heard of the Warrington Wolves as she was a mad keen round ball Wolves supporter.I informed them of the game and the forthcoming World Cup and they did acknowledge that it is a 'proper man's game'.

My conclusion is that it is incumbent on ALL the RL public to promote the game and the World Cup.The RFL are always an easy target for their supposed lack of or wasted marketing. Marketing campaign's at whatever level are very expensive and have to be carefully targeted and bundled with various activities in order to get maximum impact and return.
I would strongly urger the RL community to park the staple,routine moans about referee's, Bronco's away following, referee's, promotion-relegation, licensing, referee's, referee's etc etc and start to strongly talk up the game in the run up to October 26th.

Being a relatively small sport (v.v.Football,Union) RL has a tendancy to being introspective with a 'glass half empty' attitude.eg The Magic Weekend attendance - at just over 30k people per day represents about about 50% of the normal weekly Super League attendances.Would the Premier League attract 175k for an equivalent event.
It was great turnout in relation to normal attendances , championship rugby being played and all games televised live.

I know the RL followers now have many commitments ( French trip , Bronco's, Magic, Challenge Cup Final etc) but I would urge all to attend at least 1 World Cup match and encourage non-followers to attend.This word of mouth and directly experiencing live matches is the best form of marketing for the 'greatest game'.

Ask not what the RFL can do for your game , but ask what you can do or the game !

The roll-on benefits of well attended matches and hopefully a strong England team performance could well prove to be significant in subsequent seasons.

Who know's - we might already have 2 new recruits in the form of a Chelsea pensioner and Wolves Wolves supporter.

As the World Cup draws ever closer, I believe that it is vital that everyone in the Rugby League community pulls together to help the game maximise this rare opportunity to make a significant step-change increase in it's national profile.
Make no mistake, despite of how much we talk about 'the greatest game' and the 'quality of the product' , the game's national profile is very low.

I watched the Exiles game in a bar in Spain, and despite the pub being busy with a quiz and pool competition, I was the only one who watched the game.An elderly Chelsea supporter admitted that as a southerner he knew nothing about the game, and the landlady said she had heard of the Warrington Wolves as she was a mad keen round ball Wolves supporter.I informed them of the game and the forthcoming World Cup and they did acknowledge that it is a 'proper man's game'.

My conclusion is that it is incumbent on ALL the RL public to promote the game and the World Cup.The RFL are always an easy target for their supposed lack of or wasted marketing. Marketing campaign's at whatever level are very expensive and have to be carefully targeted and bundled with various activities in order to get maximum impact and return.
I would strongly urger the RL community to park the staple,routine moans about referee's, Bronco's away following, referee's, promotion-relegation, licensing, referee's, referee's etc etc and start to strongly talk up the game in the run up to October 26th.

Being a relatively small sport (v.v.Football,Union) RL has a tendancy to being introspective with a 'glass half empty' attitude.eg The Magic Weekend attendance - at just over 30k people per day represents about about 50% of the normal weekly Super League attendances.Would the Premier League attract 175k for an equivalent event.
It was great turnout in relation to normal attendances , championship rugby being played and all games televised live.

I know the RL followers now have many commitments ( French trip , Bronco's, Magic, Challenge Cup Final etc) but I would urge all to attend at least 1 World Cup match and encourage non-followers to attend.This word of mouth and directly experiencing live matches is the best form of marketing for the 'greatest game'.

Ask not what the RFL can do for your game , but ask what you can do or the game !

The roll-on benefits of well attended matches and hopefully a strong England team performance could well prove to be significant in subsequent seasons.

Who know's - we might already have 2 new recruits in the form of a Chelsea pensioner and Wolves Wolves supporter.

Rugby league isn't a mans game it's a game that everyone can enjoy participating in

A while back I started a thread on my former clubs 'forum' about what people were planning for the World Cup
The responses were so dispiriting they were one of several factors leading to my disassociating myself from the club and distancing myself from the game . I wish you well with your idea

Good luck with all of that. I think you'll get a mixed response on here, though. Its therefore up to each of us as individuals to put all the negative stuff behind us and support the World Cup. I've not been able to get to many games in the last year or so , but I am determined to get to as many WC games as I can.

Life is like a sewer: What you get out of it depends on what you put into it.

I live in Suffolk & I'm always banging on about our game & 99% of the time I get a positive response.

It's the geography that drives the low profile IMO. Getting to a game from Newmarket etc is very difficult & expensive. That's why we have to expand to survive and why ensuring London etc prosper is critical.

I've got my tickets & I think it will be a great tournament. We have a real chance.....

I'm targeting the opening ceremony, semi-final, final and maybe 1 or 2 group games and as yet have not bought my tickets as I'm trying to coax a few non RL fans friends, if needs be i'll be a billy no mates and go to the games on my own as I think this tournament will eclipse the 95' world cup in which I was too young and the 2000 world cup in which I was out of work.

To add to this, if we are going to persuade people calling their sports wendyball or yawnion will be ineffective/counter-productive

yes, its one thing on here but living in an area that is all football and Union I do always try and be respectful to their sports when discussing RL with people. Otherwise we just come across as chippy Northerners.

I bought another couple of tickets for the Opening Ceremony as a Fathers Day gift and started planning my trip - may have to stay in Swansea, but the Cardiff event should be brilliant, really hope the fans get behind it like it deserves.

For many, the glass is overflowing with a top quality foaming and thirst-quenching brew. They just get on with it, pay their Sky subs, buy their season tickets, etc in growing numbers eve since 1995

For others, their glass is half full, but they wish for changes before they fill it up completely. There are quite a few on heres voicing thie legitimate concerns and crative ideas.

For yet some others, the dirty glass lies shattered on the floor..not like the glasses of yore...big strong real glasses that not even the evil RFL could dislodge. Each an every one of them posts on here., it seems

Life is like a sewer: What you get out of it depends on what you put into it.

yes, its one thing on here but living in an area that is all football and Union I do always try and be respectful to their sports when discussing RL with people. Otherwise we just come across as chippy Northerners.

Your right, I also find that if you discuss their sport, even some bits you may like about it, it's much more productive than just bashing it. I can't imagine many league fans being converted to another sport by being told "leagues sh*t, watch this", we'd probably tell them to do one......

The game is great but unfortunately one of the biggest draw backs is the people who follow it. Take the Exiles match on Friday. The best 34 players in the northern hemisphere yet only 8k turn up to watch it??

There will be a crowd not much short of that this Sunday who watch my team Wakey against the current tripe that runs out in the colours of London Broncos.

How does that work? 6-7k of people who want to watch any old rubbish run out in Wakey colours, yet hardly any more want to watch the cream of RL play each other not in club colours!

I would rather watch England play any day of the week, but unfortunately 99% of RL fans are only interested in watching their club side play. Until we change that mentality, the game will always struggle to take the next big step forwards.

The game is great but unfortunately one of the biggest draw backs is the people who follow it. Take the Exiles match on Friday. The best 34 players in the northern hemisphere yet only 8k turn up to watch it??

There will be a crowd not much short of that this Sunday who watch my team Wakey against the current tripe that runs out in the colours of London Broncos.

How does that work? 6-7k of people who want to watch any old rubbish run out in Wakey colours, yet hardly any more want to watch the cream of RL play each other not in club colours!

I would rather watch England play any day of the week, but unfortunately 99% of RL fans are only interested in watching their club side play. Until we change that mentality, the game will always struggle to take the next big step forwards.